Saturday, 8 November 2008

Bus lane through Mote Park

A bus lane through Mote Park? The KM reported that the council is considering a bus route through the middle of 450 acre park that forms a massive green lung for the town. The building incursions into the park have been gradual over the years.

The park was left to the town with some form of covenant that said that it should not be built on. Since then there has been slow incursions such as the leisure centre, but a bus lane would surely be disastrous for the park. Of course the park has a strong link to the road industry with Earl Bearsted being a founder of Shell.

Building new roads is almost always wrong although I would often accept that bus lanes are an exception. In this case a bus lane through this beautiful park is wrong. The A274 bus lane can be extended down the A229 by making one of the two car lanes a bus lane. This would squeeze the space for cars but would encourage more use of the buses.

To have a bus lane down the A20 from Bearsted is more difficult but the road could be widened to encompass third lane for buses on the side away from Mote Park. I would hate to see Chip's beautiful 16th century cottage in Mote Park bulldozed.

I can't believe the councillors would be crazy enough to let this go through. There will be a serious campaign if they try to...